Chatham Rock files second EEZ marine consent application

March 31
(BusinessDesk) - Chatham Rock Phosphate, which wants to mine
phosphate nodules from the seafloor on the Chatham Rise, has
submitted a draft marine consent application to the
Environmental Protection Authority.

The application is the
second to be submitted under new EEZ legislation.
TransTasman Resources, which wants to hoover ironsands off
the seafloor more than 20 kilometres off the coast from
Patea is currently going through the first ever hearings
under the new regime.

CRP’s application comes after more
than four years’ work and $25 million of investment in
environmental impact assessments, market evaluation, and
development of relationships with mining partners, most
notably Dutch dredging firm Royal Boskalis.

Its plans are
heavily opposed by the fishing industry, which fears
sediment plumes from the activity will damage spawning
grounds for orange roughy in an area where the fishing
method known as bottom-trawling has been banned.

CRP
already has a mining permit, which was granted last
December, but the EPA process is equivalent to a resource
consent, and will assess the project on environmental impact
grounds.

The EPA will appoint a panel of commissioners to
consider the application, with CRP chief executive Chris
Castle expecting a decision “in November after a full
public process.”

“Including the proceeds of the rights
issue presently underway, CRP has raised over $27 million
from its existing shareholders and through placements to
qualified investors to finance extensive spending on
science-based research,” said Castle, who is shopping the
project to investors in London at present.

“Rigorous
research by scientists has considered the relevant facets of
what we propose and demonstrates how we can minimise and
mitigate environmental impacts,” he said in a statement.

CRP is arguing the phosphate mining project would free
New Zealand from around $100 million of imports annually of
phosphate – a key input for New Zealand farming - from
disputed territories in the Western Sahara, and could
produce a new source of
exports.

The Wellington-based BusinessDesk team led by former Bloomberg Asian top editor Jonathan Underhill and Qantas Award-winning journalist and commentator Pattrick Smellie provides a daily news feed for a serious business audience.

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